Friday, 19 October 2007

Fennesz

"its most glimmering elements shining like sunlight through cracks in a wall, sharp as diamonds."

At the frontier of contemporary music is Fennesz: a meticulous laptop conceptualist who weaves tangible melodies and glowing guitars through dense, symphonic electronica. Fennesz uses guitar and computer to create shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex musicality. "Imagine the electric guitar severed from cliche and all of its physical limitations, shaping a bold new musical language." - (City Newspaper, USA).

Christian Fennesz is know from his own particular musical world as well as his impeccable work in creating beautiful compositions for guitar. Somewhere between concrete music, classical and ambience sounds, he stretches musical resources and effects to create melodies and atmospheres that fuse classical and orchestral concepts with conceptual musical research and complex digital structures. Fennesz has been recording with Ryuichi Sakamoto, with whom he also plays live, with Keith Rowe and Sparklehorse. He has also worked alongside Peter Rehberg and Jim O'Rourke in the improvisional trio Fenn O'Berg, and with David Sylvian who sang on his album Venice and for whom Fennesz composed the music for the song "A Fire in the Forest" for his album Blemish.

Rolling Stone described him as "the most pictorial composer-programmer in laptop electronica".

Ben Bortwick (the wire 09/05): Fennesz guitar and laptop live set demonstrate why he remains one of the most engaging musicians using electronics. His treatment of the laptop and guitar allow each to give up its identity to the other, exquisite guitar washes loosing their specificity to the crackling textures of the laptop. Live guitar chords become loops on the laptop and he constantly shifts between contradictions and possibilities of each.